A Radio Performer at the Minnesota State Fair

The Minnesota State Fair is a big event in the Upper Midwest. For 10 days, people from Minnesota and the surrounding states come to eat, listen to music, look at prize-winning farm animals and agricultural exhibits, and go on amusement park rides. In this short video, Kevin Kling, a writer and performer, is reading from one of his books and telling a story about what it was like to learn that school is closed for the day because of a snowstorm. In this part of the country, schools have to close sometimes because there's just too much snow or ice or it's too cold for children to go outside. It's one of the great joys of childhood in this part of the country to wake up to two feet of newly fallen snow and then find out that you don't have to go to school.

In the video, when he says "public and parochial," that means that the public schools are closed and so are the private and religious schools. "Parochial" is used to refer to a school that teaches religion as part of the curriculum.